Continuing Muslim Western Wall Denial - by Elder of Ziyon

...It is not difficult to see that the Palestinians, and some Muslims in general, are interested in denying any connection of Judaism to Israel. The consistent claiming of literally every Jewish holy site, all of which predate Islam, as Islamic and not Jewish is not a coincidence. It is the basis of their view of Jews in the Middle East.

Elder of Ziyon..
09 August '18..

The Secretary General of the Islamic-Christian Committee to Support Occupied Jerusalem and Holy Sites, Hanna Issa, wrote an article where he denies that the Western Wall has any historic significance to Jews while claiming that it is of pure Islamic heritage and has been venerated by Muslims as the Al Buraq Wall since the time of Mohammed.

Starting in the first half of the 19th century, the Jews began to claim that the Wall of Buraq, with its great stones at its bottom, was the remaining building of their superstitious temple, which they called the Wailing Wall (now called the Western Wall). Muslims have allowed them to visit the wall as part of religious tolerance, but they have brought their instruments and trumpets and tried to turn the place into a synagogue.

Issa later says that Jews began to venerate the Kotel in the 16th century, which is indeed the time that Jews started to concentrate on that section of the retaining wall of the Temple. Before that they would gather to pray at other areas on the western and southern sections of the Temple Mount.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Question. Will Palestinians Protect Freedom of Religion and Holy Places in Jerusalem? by Mitchell Bard

...The consistent violation of agreements that the Palestinians have already signed regarding freedom of religion and the protection of holy places, in addition to the religious persecution and mistreatment of non-Muslims, provide ample practical evidence of why the international community should have grave concerns about giving the Palestinians control over any part of Jerusalem.

Mitchell Bard..
Algemeiner.com..
10 January '18..

For the sake of argument, let us assume that the Palestinians one day achieve their goal of securing a capital for a Palestinian state in Jerusalem. What would this likely mean for the residents and visitors to the city?

The hope would be that the city’s holy places would be protected and accessible — and that everyone would enjoy freedom of worship, as they do under Israel’s jurisdiction. But past precedent — as well as more recent Palestinian behavior — is not reassuring.

The part of Jerusalem that the Palestinians demand for their capital was under Arab control from 1948-1967. Jordan occupied the city and the West Bank for 19 years — and, curiously, the Palestinians never demanded an end to the “occupation” or the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. These demands only emerged when Israel — that is Jews — took control over the area. Palestinians have never been able to explain the nearly two-decade gap in their supposed longing for self-determination in the land that they speciously claim has been theirs since time immemorial.

Before advocating a redivision of Jerusalem, proponents should read the history of that period.

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Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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The Need for Israel to Take Action: Redeeming the Captive Yosef

...a few hours later, Kever Yosef was overrun and quickly reduced to flaming ruins. In retrospect, it was and remains abundantly clear that Israel made a grievous strategic mistake in pulling out of Joseph's Tomb. The withdrawal marked the first time that Israel had directly retreated under fire in the face of Palestinian violence, sending the other side an unequivocal message of weakness and vacillation.

Michael Freund..
Pundicity/HaModia..
20 October '15..

In the early hours of the morning on Friday, October 16, an outrageous assault took place, one that should have aroused indignation across the civilized world.

In an act of unrestrained barbarism, a mob of over 150 Palestinians stormed Kever Yosef in Shechem (Nablus), wreaking havoc as they desecrated the holy site and set it ablaze.

The only reason for the assault was hatred, pure and simple. To vandalize and despoil a holy place is straight out of the playbook of the Taliban and the Islamic State (ISIS). It is an assault on everything held sacred by the Jewish people, an affront to our people's history and a telling reminder of the kind of enemy that Israel faces.

Needless to say, the incident was not widely reported in the international press, undoubtedly because it defies the narrative of Palestinian victimhood that much of the media has been peddling for far too long.

But this act of savagery underlines the need for Israel to take action. Indeed, it is time for the Jewish state to reassert full control over Kever Yosef, which it ignominiously abandoned 15 years ago this month in the wake of a previous Palestinian attack.

Kever Yosef, of course, is the burial place of one of our greatest Biblical forebears and it is one of Israel's premier sites of religious, historical and archaeological significance.

The late Dr. Zvi Ilan, one of Israel's foremost archaeologists, described Kever Yosef as "one of the tombs whose location is known with the utmost degree of certainty and is based on continuous documentation since Biblical times" (Tombs of the Righteous in the Land of Israel, p. 365).

According to sefer Yehoshua (24:32), "The bones of Joseph which the Children of Israel brought up from Egypt were buried in Shechem in the portion of the field that had been purchased by Jacob." The site is also mentioned in the Midrash. Ancient Christian scholars, Arab geographers, medieval Jewish pilgrims, Samaritan historians and even 19th-century British cartographers all concur regarding Joseph's Tomb and its location.

But ever since Israel abandoned the site under a hail of Palestinian gunfire on October 7, 2000, it has fallen out of the consciousness of too many Jews.

But who can possibly forget that fateful day, when a tempestuous throng of Palestinians assaulted Kever Yosef, and demolished it in a matter of hours.

At the time, in scenes broadcast worldwide, Palestinians armed with sledgehammers put on a memorable display of their notion of religious tolerance as they hacked, chopped, smashed and destroyed one of the most hallowed sites belonging to the Jewish people.

The pristine sounds of Jewish prayer which had once filled the skies over Kever Yosef were replaced by plumes of smoke as the invading Arab throng pillaged the compound, setting alight holy books and other sacred religious objects.

The attack on Kever Yosef 15 years ago was the culmination of a process that had begun several days beforehand, when Palestinian policemen and Fatah terrorists launched a coordinated assault on the Israeli soldiers guarding the location. A 19-year old Druze Israeli border policeman was shot and killed in the attack.